Self-actualisation via revelation

reviews

It seems that my book amount has steadily decreased to one. I hope this isn’t a trend but I think these past couple of months have been outliers because of NaNoWriMo (which I won!) coupled with big books that I’m reading right now have slowed me down. I’m aiming to top the year off with three books and currently on track for that.

Crooked Kingdom by Leigh Bardugo [4/5 stars]

Another month, another job for the Dregs in the conclusion to the Crooked Kingdom duology. And what an end: heists, heartbreak, and heroics (?) are aplenty this time around in a crystallisation of the strengths of Bardugo and her Grishaverse.

The flashbacks are still here, though! They’re good bits of character depth but they’re overlong and distracting. Not as bad Six of Crows‘ mind, but still noticeable. Characters—new and from the past trilogy—rub shoulders, shining alongside the ever-expanding world.

When you’re having so much fun it’s hard not to feel sad to be parting with them all. Hopefully they’ll be back in time, in some form or another. If not in their own story, perhaps someone else’s. At the very least, more books in this universe as the world is slowly building in interesting ways that I’d love more follow-up on. Bardugo continues to grow as a writer and we’re the richer for it. Recommended.

Advertisements

Share

Like this:

Autumn deepens but stays warm and busy, bringing this month’s readership down to only two. But that is not a problem! I also have to apologise for the lateness of the post: I’ve been busy doing NaNoWriMo and that swallows more time than you give it credit for. I did win again though, so there’s that. But I’ll talk about that in another update.

Ready Player One by Ernest Cline [4/5 stars]

This was a fun, yet flawed adventure playing on a nostalgia that I don’t possess for a decade I never lived in. I’m a bit younger than the intended fanbase—I didn’t grow up in the 80’s—but that didn’t detract from my enjoyment too much.

2044. The world has gone to shit and the only pleasure that people worldwide can enjoy is an immersive MMO (massive multiplayer online) game, accessed through VR headsets. The book follows Wade Watts in his hunt for the Easter egg that the game’s creator left, which will allow the winner access to his fortune of a significant amount of billions of dollars. (The creator had a love for the 80’s since they grew up then, and part of the hunt is understanding his obscure interests so 80’s fever has swept the world.)

The world is quite detailed in the beginning so the book does suffer a bit in its pacing. It’s not too much of a problem because in general it adds a certain enjoyable richness.

Also, I’m not sure if it was intended to be so easy. I was talking to my brother about this and he raised a good point: it felt very objective-led, like a game. Fascinating, that. What I mean is that everything Wade wants, he gets. Without spoiling it, it could be argued that Cline is structuring the book like a game, which are designed to be able to be completed [*waves hands* “Me~eta~a”] but convincing book it does not make. If I step back and allow it to be “a bit of fun” it holds up, except that too is unsatisfactory when some other spoilery world-grounding elements are introduced, which remind you actually this shit is not a game. So the objective-led aspects undermine the more serious parts to some extent.

That being said, look at the rating! It’s fun, and geeky in all the right ways. The prose is simple and smooth and the general pace is pretty good, especially towards the middle and end. But I don’t think it has a lot of revisit value. Maybe I’m too young to really love it and I think that’s partly to do with the fact that the 80’s was not my childhood. Ah well, if you like video games and anime and are looking for a good read, you’d could do much, much worse.

Modern Romance by Aziz Ansari [3/5 stars]

Don’t be alarmed by the three stars. I had a lot of fun reading this: it’s smart and funny, just like Aziz Ansari, who’s turning into a bit of a cultural virtuoso: actor, writer, screenwriter (of some incredible TV), comedian … I dig someone who wears a lot of hats. Makes other generalists like myself feel at ease that one can find success in multiple things. But back to the aims of the book!

Unfortunately, it was not quite the sort of book for me. Not that I wasn’t showing up for a distillation of modern romance; no, that’s what I got this book. It’s more that the sum of its parts equalled everything I already knew about dating in the modern age, barring perhaps information about places like France and Japan, which were fascinating and the most enlightening to me. I recommend anyway but if you only read those bits, it’s worth it.

Basically, it’s well-researched, well-written, very funny, but if you already have a few intuitions—or better yet, direct experience—about dating in the present day in comparison to before smartphones and such, you’ll have already known about 70-80% of the book’s material. It’s not a bad thing if you genuinely don’t know but my appetite is only whetted by the end of this book, not sated. For non-fiction I really want to mostly learn more vs. what I already know and this sadly didn’t deliver.

Share

Like this:

Summer has wound to an end and autumn opens its arms, nestling us in its embrace. Leaves blush in the growing cold, and the season of jumpers and pumpkin spiced—blahblahblah cozy descriptors (I do genuinely love autumn tho it’s very Branded™ now). Adventure, mystery, and robots awaited me in September, that glorious young autumn month.

Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo [4/5 stars]

My relationship with this book has come full-circle after nearly two years: I went away and read the Grisha trilogy, took a break, and have returned. I have to say it was not disappointing.

Six teens are put to an impossible task: a prison break from the most secure place in the region. Six of Crows is a brisk and wonderful book with a fun and interesting cast, set in an intriguing world. We’ve moved away from the palaces, courts, and Good vs. Evil to the much more morally grey criminal world. Set in the same world as the Grisha trilogy (two years after book 3, I believe), but in a different country, one most certainly does not to read the Shadow & Bone trilogy to read this duology. There are polite Easter eggs for those who have but it won’t detract from your experience because extra-textual references are kept to a minimum: this is a story with a different cast, although we do get some added depth to the world, perfect for someone who likes links between texts.

Despite it’s many successes, it does suffer a bit from the length of the backstories. They’re illuminative enough to give depth and motivation to the characters, but they are quite long in a fair number of cases which makes the forward motion of the plot judder a bit. Not too disjointing, but significant enough*.

Ultimate Spider-Man, Ultimate Collection, Book 1, written by Brian Michael Bendis, illustrated by many [4/5 stars]

Picture this: Spider-Man is your favourite superhero, rubbing shoulders with Wonder Woman and Batman. Since 2002 there have been 6 Spider-Man live-action films with three different actors. You know this story all too well. And yet, you still get emotional over Uncle Ben and Peter’s story.

Brian Michael Bendis is the guy who’s everywhere in comics. Most of my brother’s comic collection has his name printed on it. He’s responsible for some of the most iconic “event” Marvel comics like Secret Invasion, House of M, as well as a shitload of other Marvel superheroes. He’s also the co-creator of Jessica Jones. There’s a reason for this: he can write. Bendis, alongside the artists, have managed to make teenage Peter Parker’s tale still feel fresh and emotional, despite it being so familiar. One advantage of the comics over the films is that it can take its time building character relationships which, again, it does well.

Art: the art for me was interestingly exaggerated which made action scenes punchier. Two gripes, however: 1.) The sexualisation of Mary Jane was uncomfortable reading, considering she’s a child (they’re fifteen when this begins). A fairly sedentary teenager with an athlete’s body read almost more like parody than problematic but still, not super cool with that. 2.) The inks are bit heavy for my taste.

Other than that, this was great reading. Comic collections like this are really good to build reading confidence in a slump. I’ll be sure to move along through Spidey’s Ultimate Collections.

The Caves of Steel by Isaac Asimov [3/5 stars]

Last but not least: The Caves of Steel.

I must admit, I was fairly disappointed by my first foray into Asimov. I became interested in this because I was to use it as research for a project I’m working on. From an entertainment standpoint it was … fine?

The set-up: a futuristic Earth where there are tensions between humans and extra-planetary Spacers are rife. The two communities are separated: humans cloistered in their caves of steel, large networks of urbanised area inside and homogeneous instead of how we know them; the Spacers meanwhile are in their own domed communities free from the disease-carrying humans. A robot Spacer is teamed with a human police officer to investigate the death of a (fleshy) Spacer.

Sound good so far? Unfortunately, despite the real and clear animosity the humans have for robots, as well as the philosophical discussions of the nature of reality and the relationship between humans and androids, it was kind of boring. That’s a shame, considering the towering influence that Asmiov possesses. Perhaps I started in the wrong place. The philosophy makes it worthwhile enough but that can’t mask a fairly by-the-numbers detective story, which might be fine if that’s what you want.

A personal note:

I met Leigh Bardugo at a signing a couple of years ago. She was touring the UK alongside Brandon Sanderson and Bradley Beaulieu (I recommend Twelve Kings by him). I was there for Sanderson but I had chance to talk to all three in turn and I found Bardugo to be immensely charming and friendly. The conversation was enjoyable despite having lost my voice. Hearing her read and speaking to her had me sold: I bought the book that night and got her to sign it. Because of the amount of people in the queue for signing you had to pre-plan what would inscribed within, but I manage to finagle a different inscription per author. Here’s what she decided on:

I can’t remember if I said to her that I wanted to be an author, but this has always been polysemic to me: I’d lost my voice when we met and would undoubtedly get it back; more poignantly, though, I would find my literary voice and become an author. This is an Important Inscription so take note, everyone, because I will keep talking about it.

Share

Like this:

A wild graphic novel appears! I had every intention of reading graphic novels again (my friend very kindly bought me a collection of Watchmen) but I was always intimidated by the size of the universes that comics have built. Especially Marvel, which has a continuous universe since inception. But my brother and I got digging and we found a list for where newbs can get stuck in.

I had a stint where I collected Japanese comics so now I’m turning my attention back to superheroes. Soon I want to look into non-superhero comics (got my eyes on you Saga.)

Okay, without further ado, August:

Every Day is for the Thief by Teju Cole [3.5/5 stars]

Huh. I put this as four stars but in retrospect it just misses it. Why? There’s no plot or characterisation to speak of. What we get instead is essentially an observers brief foray into Nigeria, in particular Lagos which is interesting as it is shocking. The prose is spare with a gently burning passion. It read more as journalistic writing than fiction, which is pertinent because some people have stated that it reads as a thinly-veiled “fictionalisation” of Cole’s own story: a man who left Nigeria for America as a youth and is revisiting it later in life. I don’t mind too much, especially with the short chapters interspersed with some of Cole’s photos.

So overall, good writing and subjects, no real sense of character—I barely remembered the narrator’s family, for example. That’s a bit of a deal breaker for me, sadly.

House of M: Written by Brian Michael Bendis [4/5 stars] (Full credits through THIS link.)

Like superheroes? Like crossovers of various Marvel properties? Want a good plot and art? This is the book for you. I’m going to have to withhold a more detailed analysis/breakdown for when I’ve read more comics to compare the style to: obviously the rules are going to differ to novels, with obvious visual advantages but some storytelling deficits.

This is a collection of the eight stories that make up this arc in the Marvel Universe. For a newbs first foray into Marvel after about 15 years, I enjoyed myself quite a bit and did make me want to see what’s after this. Have a peek.

The Silver Tide by Jen Williams [4/5 stars]

And so comes to an end a story of friendship and adventure. This book demonstrated Williams’ growth as writer which keeps rewarding readers with more fun, being the vision of what a final book should be, and what I imagine she hoped her first book to be. This one deals with time but in a way that keeps the concept surprisingly fresh.

So long, Black Feather Three. A touching and wholly “right” ending to a solid series. I’ll be definitely sure to check out Williams’ next trilogy (starting with The Ninth Rain, the book that put Williams on my map). Probably starting when book two drops next year.

Share

Like this:

No theme for July but definitely weighted towards more non-fiction, which is good news for me; bad for you. With every bit of knowledge earned, I grow more powerful!

In seriousness though, I recommend all of these books, but some more than others.

Doing Good Better by William MacAskill [3/5 stars]

Interesting thesis with a supposed “counter-intuitive” element to it. To me, it was logical and plausible, especially considering his clear explanations. Perhaps because I went in wanting to be convinced. Rather than aimlessly trying to be altruistic, the purpose of the book is to get people to be more thoughtful and deliberate with their actions without disadvantaging one too much.

His desire to skirt past assumptions about being utilitarian were amusing but didn’t do so well to me. To me, it still reads as a (admittedly modified) form of utilitarianism. This was especially with the amount of people who get left out by the decision-making process. Read it and see for yourself. At the very least, though, this book will aim to make us take charity very seriously by help us make decisions that affect us directly like moving city or getting a new job. Whether you believe in effective altruism is up to you. I recommend that you read it and make up your own mind. Even if you’re not convinced, there’s some worthwhile knowledge there about the nature of charity work.

Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro [3/5 stars]

This book has been on my to-read shelf for a number of years so I was pleased to see that I could get it from my library. I must say, though, it was quite disappointing. The book’s topic was interesting but it wasn’t told very well at all. What should have been moving only elicited a shrug from me and an idle wondering of “what next?”

It’s a shame because there are some really good parts but was mired by too many dull, reflexive recollections of more mundane aspects of school life.

Self by Barry Dainton [4/5 stars]

We round this month of with some philosophy! As a philosophy grad I’m surprised at how little philosophy I’ve read, so a slim book such as this should be a nice way to re-enter a scene I put aside for other subject areas.

Dainton states arguments in metaphysics and philosophy of mind in lucid, unpretentious prose. As I understand it, it’s part of a series of philosophy books for breezy explorations of topics of interest. If the aim of the book was to examine some aspects of philosophy of mind and metaphysics such as existence over time, as well as the problems of consciousness, then it succeeds. It’s no textbook and doesn’t pretend to be but it also isn’t very nuanced. It does cover a lot but not deeply which is a shame given what I thought I would be getting. I suppose it’s my thinking that’s at fault.

Ah well, Dainton’s own theory of C-continuity for his additions to the problem of consciousness was interesting to follow.

What this reminds me of is that I need to start thinking about my future philosophical reading: this was aimed at someone with less philosophical knowledge which, again, is fine but not what I’m after.

That’ll do. This month I’ve begun to read comic books—sorry, graphic novels— in earnest. You’ll have to see what they are but I’m surprised this didn’t happen sooner. More on that next month.

Share

Like this:

I’ve found very gentle themes that have drifted across my reading habits. This is purely accidental but I find it amusing. June’s reading has taken me away from the more sprawling studies into more intimate settings. I lead with a new found favourite.

I Contain Multitudes by Ed Yong [5/5 stars]

Reading a five star book for me has been a bit like a four leaf clover. I also have a weird paradox: I want to find favourites pretty readily but also their scarcity makes them precious, a book class of their own.

I Contain Multitudes in short: the world as we know it is dependant on in a large part to that which we cannot even see. Our health, behaviour, and the ability to do anything is down to a healthy relationship with the trillions of microbes that live within us.

In the book we get a look at microbes in nature, like in a bobtail squid there are certain microbes which allow them to glow and protect them from predators.

Eye-opening is an underwhelming adjective to describe this book. It’ll have to do, unfortunately. I left this book with a new perspective of the complexity and wonder of the world. Highly recommended!

Parade by Shuichi Yoshida [4/5 stars]

Ever read a book at the perfect time in your life? Like the stars aligned and produced a bit of content that fitted your exact mood? This is what Parade was for me. Again, I was gripped by the melancholia of post-graduation, a long shadow of uncertainty stretching far into the distance.

It follows five Japanese under 30s in various states of discomfort, stuck in unfavourable situations and uncertain how to go forwards. Basically: same. If I were to describe this book, I would say it’s about nothing, not even growing up per se which might sound like a not very interesting overview. For me, though, it’s part of its appeal: it feels like we’re taking a slice out of these characters’ lives, bearing temporary witness to a space of time that they all occupy until the final point.

Anger and violence are sleeper themes in this also. I read it in a day so it felt a bit more intense that it might have been if I paced myself. Good reading.

I did it! I have finished volume one of Proust’s epic. Like the sun that crests an autumn horizon, gently bathing that once frigid landscape with its pale light that unfurls like the banners of your country’s army, near those frozen fields by old Combray that are awakened to the prospect of a new dawn, the story unfolds in a gorgeous, but slow manner, such as in the case of that old gentleman Swann, that storied champion with whom we spend an excellent period exploring the tragedies of love and jealousy, those visceral emotions that can make a man as much as they destroy him, a consuming battalion of emotions not unlike the effects of illness, taking us completely whole without chance of rebellion or clarity, which in our fevered grip we hold onto some notion of self as it has changed from memory of a time we have lost, namely such as a time when mind and body were not overwhelmed with illness, not racked or distorted but completely whole.

Reading this book you will find yourself reading a lot of sentences like this. While isolated it might even be quite endearing, but it made for slow reading, especially to begin with; more than once I wrestled with the notion of abandoning it. But I didn’t. And, being on the other side, I did enjoy it but I must say “overwritten” is a word that comes to mind. Especially when it comes to simpler ideas. In exploring the nuances of emotions, Proust has no rival, and he writes a mean description too. But it poses a problem when you lose the point of the sentence after the 20th comma. I wonder how much is down to the translator. I may never know. What you do have though is something with real flourishes, a piece of literature deserving of its esteem. I’ll check back in but not too quickly.

Ah, the misadventures of youth! Fresh out of university and so full of energy, optimism and passion.

I couldn’t help but see some of myself in Art Bechstein, the narrator of Mysteries. Just out of university with the promise of a whole world out there crammed with love, sex, adventure. It’s so 80s. But in a good way (it was published in the 80s so it’s earnest in its energy). I need more optimism in my life. The optimism isn’t naïve, but it is an identifiable young sort.

The book explores sexuality and love in very honest, often sensitive, ways. Chabon also has a heck of an ear for dialogue, which made the conversations a breeze to follow. The characters carried with them the scent of uncertainty and identity-formation that I see with me and my social groups—people in their twenties still trying to figure it all out. I read this at the perfect time.

This being said, I wish Chabon would slow down a little. It’s pacy and that’s a boon, but some of the more ponderous and emotional moments weren’t treated with a carefulness they deserved before we’re racing off to the next thing.

That being said, this is still an accessible and fun read with good writing, characters, and grounded feeling to it. Would’ve made a good film (not the 2009 one–we’ll quietly ignore that).

The Sixth Extinction by Elizabeth Kolbert [4/5 stars]

For a book with such a gloomy title, this read was a far more pleasant than it could have been.

Before we get into it, though, I should explain: in the history of animals, there have been five extinction events where all life was nearly wiped out. With the way certain flora and fauna are dying out, we may be heading to our next one. This time a man-made extinction, the first animals have had an active role in such an event.

Sound heavy? Well good because IT’S ALL OUR FAULT … except, it is and it isn’t. Global warming, sure. For example, there are fungi-related deaths because spores from one country travel across the ocean to other countries because they’ve dispersed onto boats and planes and the like, with the new country’s fauna poorly adapted to fight what is ostensibly new for them. While you could point the finger at us, some of the fallout of wildlife is also accidental.

Where a book on such a topic could have been sombre, judgemental, even heartbreaking, it reads with a passion for understanding and curiosity. Kolbert writes in serious but fluid prose and never once is boring. You can tell she’s a reporter first. And that interest carries forward the main thrust of the book. It also offers an insight of a possible world where we no longer exist—something of a comfort to me, not a fear. I’m talking many, many years from now.

Read this book! I guarantee you’ll walk out of the experience having learned something interesting about the world.

From the opening lines, I am struck at the readability of this book. The prose guides the reader through with careful fluidity. We as the audience are addressed as an observer as if we’re watching a film. In fact, the way he describes scenes is through the lens of an imagined camera as it moves through the spaces in the book. It’s like we’re being watched while watching. It’s very self-aware and less jarring than it sounds. It works by giving the book a very cinematic feel. I often felt as though I was watching a translation of a film onto the page, the various scenes para-real, film-like.

Set in Tokyo, the book focuses on a cast of characters over the course of one night as the title indicates: after dark. They all have their own problems and backstories that develop as time moves on. What’s made clear are the divisions of reality that come to the fore in the night, inner darkness—violence, ill intent—that can hide in the pureness of day but is exposed at night. Like occupying a different world. There are some surreal elements as well which I enjoyed.

What I loved as well is the idea of people as both individuals but part of a whole, like cells in a body of the city. Very enjoyable stuff.

Also, of course we have Murakamisms in abundance: the quiet, unassuming protagonist, characters with serious/mysterious backstories, jazz, etc. No talking animals or weird sex scenes though.

The Iron Ghost by Jen Williams [4/5 stars]

This was plain and simple an improvement of the first book in the sequence of the Copper Cat: it tightens the focus of the book to one setting and the consequences that develop over the course of it. A surprising amount of stuff is covered over the course of this second volume which I’m uncertain if I liked or not. I experienced a bit of a lull in the middle but it was for the most part fun and inventive in just the right amount. I do wish that the antagonist was a.) not spoiled in the blurb (!!!!!!) and b.) a bit more fleshed out. Their defeat was fairly underwhelming, I have to admit. Otherwise, though, I was very pleased with how much better it was. Williams clearly knows how to build a world and make you care about the cast.

Also, I love how things fit together without relying too much of the previous book. It definitely deepens the experience by starting from the first book but I could easily see a new reader starting here with little difficulty.

Franny & Zooey by J.D. Salinger [4/5 stars]

A short story and novella concerning the Glass family focusing on the eponymous characters, respectively. I said in a earlier review of this but I felt like I was reading a play or the script for a film (that makes two books this time around!). This for me is more a treatise arguing for authenticity in life and spirit. The way the ideas develop mostly through prose, conversations between speakers that are out of sync with one another. The methods of communication was very naturalistic to me (although the use of italics felt overused in a lot of cases—also what’s up with Zooey’s rudeness to his mom? Man. Learn some respect, haha), characters sorting through problems in a believable way (and pace), hence why I thought film/play. The translation could be pretty easy, I think.

I don’t think it’s for everyone but man did I learn a thing or two from it, both as a writer and as a person. For a lot of people, Salinger might seem to didactic, in your face with the Lesson of the book but I genuinely felt a hardened of my spirit when I was done. I think I want to re-read Catcher now.

I’m also pleased to learn that the Glass family is a saga so I’ll jump into that next story when I can.

(Interestingly I caught the influence Salinger had on David Foster Wallace with the Glass family. It’s interesting to see the links between authors I think.)

Share

Like this:

Last month was a slower month than February despite the fact it was longer? I suppose it happens. Here’s what I’ve been reading!

The Copper Promise by Jen Williams [3/5 stars]

Don’t let that star rating deter you. This book is a lot of fun. So much so, that I borrowed its sequel from the library long before I’d even finished this one. So why didn’t it get top marks?

Let’s go back a bit: The Copper Promise was initially a short story about a group of individuals on an adventure into an ancient citadel and it … shows. Well, the book works kind of fine, but it doesn’t hang together as well as you might hope. The through-line of a continuous story across the four parts (or novellas) was nice for a sense of some continuity but some threads were more tenuously connected than others. Because of that, some things didn’t need to happen whatsoever.

Also, sadly the focus on adventure meant they flitted across the book’s world meant that I couldn’t soak into much of its locales in depth, or appreciate certain events that happened, which is a shame because there are flourishes of some really cool stuff that would have been heavy-hitting had there been more careful build up. The focus is more of the world’s history which is well-drawn. Place needn’t be your number one, especially if you don’t have a fixed one in place, but I wish there was more anchoring. They seemed to be in one place for only a tiny amount of time, which was a shame. What I’m saying is that having more development of the places they were going would have made it better.

Also, there are a surprising amount of unnecessary POVs (one-time characters who had zero bearing on the plot, for example).

But—and this a big but—the other aspects are an utter delight. Even when the story was slowing down to weird side streets and avenues, the writing was breezy and unobtrusive. Details were pared down and chapters were short, which made it quick to get through, although I did feel its size towards the end. And Bezcavar. And the griffins. Wydrin, and having one of the main cast be gay (and it not define who they were!)—all really cool!

Overall, it was a fun ride and I’m currently reading its sequel which structure-wise is so far improved upon the major gripes I had with its predecessor. You’ll hear about it soon enough.

Economics by James Forder (Beginners Guides) [3/5 stars]

I’ll confess my disappointment.

What I thought I was getting: an accessible introduction to economics for the uninitiated. What I got: was a strikingly obscure one in places. This is not to say that there weren’t lucid moments—quite the opposite. But Forder had a habit of running away with a long train of abstraction that didn’t do well for my understanding. Difficult subjects can be explained well and points of this book were not. It definitely could have benefited from more practical examples to illustrate points more clearly, for that is when I could understand Forder’s presentation of ideas.

Despite that, I did learn a few things about economics and what it can and can’t do. Also, a huge amount of respect for his critique of economic and, to a larger extent, academic “priesthood” (or elitism). It had me grinning. I do feel slightly more confident in exploring economics but sadly not as much as the sweet, sweet promise that the book offered.

Like this:

It’s World Book Day! What better way to celebrate it than to review the ones I’ve read recently. Here’s what I read in February.

The Power by Naomi Alderman [3/5 stars]

So the concept of this book was an interesting one to me. In short, a role reversal: what if women had the power instead of men? Power being quite literal. Imagine a parallel earth in the present day, but there’s been a latent mutation that starts to manifest in young women in the form of electricity that can be shot from their hands. Older women can’t generate it naturally but can use it if a young woman awakens it in them. This is our setting.

What happens is the unravelling of one social order and the rise of women’s rebellion across the globe, them taking the power. Are you seeing it? It’s allegory. There are four main (and a couple of others off the top of my head) perspectives that act as the observers of the world. Beyond that, though, there’s not much to say about them. They exist on linear axes without any clearly definable character development. This is disappointing and so the book misses out on some of its potential emotive beats: I didn’t massively care for them a great deal.

What we do have, however is some very taught writing and an interesting concept. There’s also a lot of violence (unsurprising) and hoo boy quite a bit of rape as well. When you remove the electrical powers and invert the genders, you’re looking into the mirror of our world which makes it that much more bone-chilling. The allegory is cleverly told but it has, sad to say, not amazing characters. Overall, a good, but not great, book.

On Liberty by Shami Chakrabarti [3/5 stars]

I should not be bored by the discussion of basic civil liberties. I repeat: I should not be bored by the discussion of basic civil liberties. And yet, in 140 pages, I was. What? In this book we get some pretty surprising revelations about surveillance in relation to the 9/11 attacks. This is stuff that directly affects our civil liberties (and is part of a pantheon of material I’m using as research for my book) and yet it was a bitingly dull read. I’m sorry to say those words but the purpose of the book genuinely suffered from the writing. Dry, lawyer-like writing, peppered with some personal stories that tie in with her points. This should have taken me a sitting to read, but it took days instead.

The Future of the Mind by Michio Kaku [3.75/5 stars]

I imagine Michio Kaku is fun at parties. He strikes me as a warm paternal figure with lots of knowledge of cool things and a way of telling good stories about big ideas that are a lot of fun. This is what this book is, in short. For the most part, it’s a lot of speculation. Pills that make you smarter? Merging with machines? An emotional internet … eh maybe. This is heart of a the book: a long series of “this could happen with the development of neuroscience … but not yet”, but that’s alright, that’s what I was kind of looking for.

There’s some light science here that acts as sort of crash course for the layperson—moi—so it’s perfect for the average reader to follow along, learn a thing or two. What sets it apart from being “merely” light and fun is the interweaving of philosophical and scientific pondering that left me with stuff to chew on. It’s not a massively deep book that richly explores concepts, but rather lots of ideas in accessible broad brushstrokes. Also, I was generally surprised and dismayed at how lenient he was towards the MKUltra project. I suppose it’s not the right place to moralise but he spoke about them as if they were near-harmless experiments.

Overall, though, it’s a fun book for someone who wants to go on a speculative and informative journey.

Neuromancer by William Gibson [4/5 stars]

“The sky above the port was the colour of television, tuned to a dead channel.”

Who can top one of the slickest, vaguest writer in literary history? Very few. Pop culture of the last thirty or so years owes a great debt to Gibson. Just look at The Matrix and Ghost in the Shell. We might not have them were it not for Neuromancer. Both of those form a significant portion of our culture, not just in sci-fi society rooms underneath university buildings.

What Gibson lacks in terms of character depth, and clarity, he makes up for sheer originality, which means I’m often torn. I want to like the characters and the plot but half the time I can’t even understand what’s happening. A girl with implanted sunglasses and retractable nails? Using headsets to jack into the internet? Intelligent AIs? Sure, sign me up.

The plot progression barely registered for me so I felt a bit dim, but in general it was written like someone on a drug high, with shades of clarity and obscurity in alternating parts. This feels deliberate as it follows only our main character Case, who is a drug addict, from a limited third-person perspective. Unfortunately, that’s what makes it kind of suffer as well. There is a great deal of complexity about human motivation as well as the integration of technology and consciousness but the depth is missed with the prose. I had to read up on it so I was absolutely clear what I had just read. I imagine it’s one of those reads that becomes greatly improved with repeat visits (like Ancillary Justice) but boy, for such a short book it makes you really work for it. Super Cool (note the capital C) world and ideas. Not so sure about the style.

An extra star for being way, way ahead of its time.

Stone Arabia by Dana Spiotta [4/5 stars]

Another month, another Dana Spiotta book.

I don’t know if this is a problem that all of her books face—I have read exactly 50% of them now—but the beginning of this is cluttered. Packed thickly with details of the world we’re to explore, parentheses and seeming tangents, it’s almost off-putting. But then things calm down. The narrative presses on, alternating between first- and third-person, as well as in a form of a sort of metafiction. This is less gimmicky and off-putting than it sounds. Put simply, there are three layers to how the narrative unfolds: the third-person perspective of Denise, our protagonist; her first-person retelling (and remembering of the events of her recent past) which occupies the bulk of the book; and The Chronicles of her brother, Nik, a fictional telling of his life.

Each of the narratives fulfil a specific purpose. The book is about mortality and ponders its many associations like the passage of time, memory, and permanence. There are a sometimes very haunting moments in the book that explore what happens to us when we age, especially through the lens of memory and its disappearance; Denise trying to remember an actress’ name cut a bit too close to my life. It’s a scary thing, forgetting, like a piece of you is disappearing that seemed so crucial, never before to shift. Of course, mortality is described across three crucial points: old age, youth, and the middle ages through Denise, in her 40s, her 20-something daughter, and her ailing mother. The parts on memory are some of the best writing I’ve ever read. It’s very powerful stuff.

On top of that there are musings on how realities can be presented—and distorted—and how we normalise them. Spiotta chooses television cycles. Denise obsessively consumes news and tragedies, and she records her strange and visceral reactions to it.

Almost in direct contrast to this her brother Nik who is a down-on-his-luck, but prolific, musician. He never really had a professional career but continues to produce music for the benefit of a tiny few, mostly family.

So you see there’s a lot to unpack here. The book is barely over 200 pages long and the deceptively simple prose and small size would lead you to believe that it’s a light read. It’s anything but. It’s very astute and unique, empathetic without being showy: the characters feel less charactery—although Nik kind of absorbs that vibe single-handedly—and more like people. It has a lot of interesting things to say in relationship to time and age.

I will say, however, that I’m not sure I understand some of the motivations of Denise, especially in the last third. Not only that, but I wish there was more on the relationship between Denise and her daughter. There was some but I wish there was something a bit more.

Busy month! Currently I’m reading Infinite Jest and a book on economics.